Diary of a Dominatrix and Saucy Little Tart
Molly Kielly
Eros Comics

For the new girl in town looking to start a career or the retiree looking to boost her social security income, Molly Kielly presents the first “how to” comic book on the art and lifestyle of a dominatrix. Diary of a Dominatrix, a three-issue series from Seattle’s Eros Comics line, presents full page instructions for things such as ball torture, branding and bondage basics. This coy, funny look into Zelda Zork’s big city torture business ran for three issues before delving more into Zelda’s personal life and adventures and changing its title to Saucy Little Tart.

Some excellent customer/client incidents begin this story, showing us what lines this dominatrix will not cross. Then we follow Zelda home to her boyfriend, Zeljko, who’s all too eager to please Zelda’s strap-on. The lovemaking scenes between the pair are told with an affection missing from the earlier studio scenes. The subtle resentment felt towards some clients disappears behind this mature relationship back home. Zeljko gets waxed bare and gets intimate with a Japanese eggplant, but it’s all in the spirit of love, not monetary exchange.

Kielly herself seems to tire of the dominatrix-by-trade scene as the book shifts into a road trip adventure with our bondage lovers. They leave the city to first win a yodeling festival in Nevada, then to visit Zelda’s equally charming, cartoonist sister, Lasie, where new sexual innuendos and escapades abound.

The hook of these books is the attitude of “sweet domination”, a non-insulting domination foray shared between two happy people. A rarity in the adult comics genre, Keilly’s books progress from shock kink to a fuller storyline which levels so-called taboos with humorous ease. Her art style is so playful and her pin-up pages so busy with information, these books are irresistible.